Veterinary Genesis Initiative

Pain In Your Pet-A Difficult Journey Finding Hope-Never Give Up! Introduction: Donald H DeForge, VMD Part One Pain in pets is a conundrum. It is an intricate and difficult problem and important journey through diagnostics and treatment .  Many obstacles can be faced in this journey.  Pain can be sporadic ; it can be continuous; it can be relentless; and eventually lead to loss of life if not reversed.   Pain is many times hard to diagnose causing pets to live in daily discomfort with a poor quality of life. The triad of pet owner-advocate/veterinarian/ and specialist must be strongly bonded to lead to relief and removal of pain. Many pet owners do no believe their pet is in pain and suffering from a poor quality of life.  One of the greatest tragedies in the Animal Kingdom is a pet living in pain; unable to communicate that pain; while living each day believing that pain is the norm.  People can communicate their pain; share it with loved ones; and seek a doctor to diagnose and remove

  The 5 Freedoms Revisited – An Epilogue (Part 1) By Dr. Amelia Knight Pinkston   The high burnout and suicide rate in the veterinary profession cannot be our norm, and it doesn’t have to be. While reading Dr. Don DeForge’s article “The Veterinary 5 Freedoms”, I appreciated his inspiration from a speech designed to rally change for “a world attainable in our own time and generation”. Change is possible starting now – today . You summit a mountain one small step at a time. As a profession we need to be asking, “what specifically needs to change to foster a sustainable, thriving profession and what is the first smallest step that I can do today to move towards that?” As I read the Five Freedoms article, many thoughts came to mind about how we can use inspiration from the Five Freedoms to create positive change in vet med starting today. Here’s part 1!   Freedom From Fear   When I think about feeling free, I think about not being held back, restricted, or weighed down from s